Nichelle Langford BSHS/322 Client Rec Paper: Retain, Refer, or Release 1 Dec 11 – 30 Jan 12

Case Study 1

Location: Family Support Services Center

Staff member: Tom Martin

* Demographics

* Age: 32 * Gender: Male * Marital status: Divorced * Race or ethnicity: Caucasian * Years with agency: 4

* Staff member history and current assessment

* Employed as an individual counselor for adult clients * Considered an adequate, but not outstanding, counselor * Two previous client complaints that could not be substantiated * A review of Tom’s previous case files shows four female clients who terminated counseling with no explanation * Female client of Tom has informed supervisor that he had made inappropriate sexual comments, bought her presents, had one out-of-office date’, and implied that he could help get custody of her children back from protective service with a favorable treatment report * Tom initially denied these accusations when they were presented to him but does admit that he is attracted to client

Recommendation: Release; probation. My recommendation would be to have a full investigation on the claims of the client. There is nothing wrong with being attracted to your client as long as you never voice that attraction or act upon it. While the investigation is open, Mr. Martin should be supervised while with his clients. Strategies: My only strategies for dealing with this are to have Tom Martin supervised while he is with any of his clients and to have a full investigation opened to make sure that the client was being completely honest.

Case Study 2

Location: Family Support Services Center

Staff member: Janice Wellington * Demographics * Age: 28 * Gender: Female * Marital status: Single * Race or ethnicity: Hispanic * Years with agency: 2

* Staff member history and current assessment * Employed as a child and family counselor * Displays good therapeutic skills * Well-liked by clients according to client records * Client case logs not always complete or submitted in a timely way * States she does not feel confident and knowledgeable with some of the situations she is exposed to * States she is more comfortable working with children than with the entire family during counseling sessions Recommendation: Reinforce. She doesn’t need to change her techniques when she’s with a client. She just needs to learn how to better manage her time so she can her client case logs turned in on time. If she prefers working with children and not full families then change her job to just a child counselor.
Strategies: Change her job description so that she becomes a regular child counselor without having to deal with full families. The only thing she needs real help with is getting her client case logs in in a timely manner.

Case Study 3

Location: Family Support Services Center

Staff member: Michael Thompson * Demographics

* Age: 44 * Gender: Male * Marital Status: Married * Race or ethnicity: African American * Yeas with agency: 16

* Staff member history and current assessment * Currently employed as a substance abuse counselor * Recovering addict with 18 years of sobriety * States that he is under a lot of stress at home concerning financial obligations * Has a good work record, except for periods of repeated absence from work and periods of depression * Has stated recently to coworkers that he is not sure he can relate to client’s addiction issues as well as he has in the past * Staff concerned and suspicious that Michael may have suffered a relapse or is contemplating drug use * Agency has an employee assistance program and policy

Recommendation: Release. He needs to be put on probation until he straightens himself out.
Strategies: Get him into a program to help him with his addiction and get him into therapy to deal with his depression.

In case study one, a client has reported that her clinician, Tom Martin, has been abusing his position as her therapist by making unwarranted and unwanted sexual comments toward her, has been giving her presents, and has been making her promises that he can’t necessarily keep by telling her that he could give her custody of her kids back with a favorable treatment chart. He was basically bribing her in order to get and “out of office date” with her. This is not the only complaint that was filed against Mr. Martin. Two other clients have filed complaints against him. Tom denies any inappropriate behavior toward the female client, but admits that he is attracted to her. My recommendation is to place Mr. Martin on probation until a full scale investigation can be run to verify either the client’s or Mr. Martin’s stories. If the allegations against Mr. Martin are indeed legitimate, then I find that it would be necessary to terminate Mr. Martin’s employment with the agency because of this obvious sexual harassment. “Sexual harassment has been a fixture of the workplace since women first began to work outside the home. Although true epidemiological studies do not exist, large-scale surveys of working women suggest that approximately 1 of every 2 women will be harassed at some point during their academic or working lives” (Fitzgerald, 1993). In case study two, Janice Wellington really doesn’t have much wrong with her or the work she does. Her only problem is that she doesn’t get her client case logs in on time and she doesn’t feel very comfortable counseling families. She doesn’t mind counseling the children though. My suggestion is that she be reinforced. All she really needs is some supervisory support when dealing with client case logs. She just needs to learn some proper time management skills. She should also be given a little more responsibility. Her clients all like her and her only problem is in dealing with full families. Instead of dealing with children and full families she could deal with children and adolescents doing one-on-one counseling. “Time management skills are your abilities to recognize and solve personal time management problems” (TimeManagement-Guide.com, 2002). In case study three, Michael Thompson is having trouble at home with finances. He missed work because of depression and is thought to be relapsing to drugs because of this depression. The solution to this is to put Mr. Thompson on probation or suspension until he gets himself back on his feet. “The vast majority of drug users are employed, and when they arrive for work, they don't leave their problems at the door. Of the 17.2 million illicit drug users aged 18 or older in 2005, 12.9 million (74.8 percent) were employed either full or part time. Furthermore, research indicates that between 10 and 20 percent of the nation's workers who die on the job test positive for alcohol or other drugs” (United States Department of Labor, 2010).